EXODUS drummer Tom Hunting says that there are “no words” to describe how much he appreciates the support he has gotten from the heavy metal community during his battle with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the stomach.

The 56-year-old, who underwent a successful total gastrectomy in July 2021, discussed his ordeal in a new interview with Pamela Calderón of Chile’s iRock.cl. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I’m so grateful to the metal community. It’s a powerful force to have those vibrations behind you.

“Thanks to science, the medical science, they can’t find any cancer in me right now,” he continued. “So that’s awesome. They did surgery [last] July the 12th, and I’m adjusting to a new lifestyle — a different type of relationship with food. But life is good. I don’t have to get any more chemotherapy ’cause they got it all. So that’s an awesome thing. They turned a bad situation around for me, so I’m very grateful.

“I don’t even know how to thank everybody,” Tom added. “There’s no words to say how important [everybody’s support] is. Fortunately, though, I get to live and say thanks to everybody.”

This past December, Hunting told the “Put Up Your Dukes” podcast that he wants to use his experience as a cancer survivor to interact with others who may be going through a similar situation.

“I’m not qualified now, but I think in a couple of more months, they deem me qualified to talk to other people about this disease, and I’m gonna do it,” he said. “‘Cause I want people to know about it and I want people to get checked. Just going public with it — I don’t do social media, but what I read on the EXODUS [sites] was, like, ‘Hey, I’m having gut problems too,’ and, ‘I’m gonna go get checked out now.’ I hope people get the answers they’re looking for.”

“I’m not saying those drugs that they give you for your gut are bad. They get you by. But if you’re having what you think is a gut problem, tell ’em you wanna get scoped. ‘Cause some of those scans and some of those tests, they won’t pick up what’s going on inside there.

“Since I’m on this journey, dude, they’re fucking scanning me constantly,” Tom added. “‘Cause they wanna see how I’m reacting to what they’re doing too. So it’s all part of the science and the evolution of the science. If they can help me live — and I love my life — and I can help them develop the science to help the next batch of people who you know are gonna get this shit, that’s a win-win.”

Hunting rejoined his EXODUS bandmates on stage in early October at the Aftershock festival in Sacramento, California.

EXODUS tapped John Tempesta to play drums for the band at Psycho Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada in August and at Full Terror Assault in Cave In Rock, Illinois in September while Hunting was recovering from surgery. Tempesta was a member of EXODUS from 1989 until 1993 and played on the band’s albums “Impact Is Imminent” (1990) and “Force Of Habit” (1992).

A GoFundMe campaign to help Hunting with medical expenses had previously raised more than $114,000 — including $5,000 from Tom’s former EXODUS bandmate, current METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett, and $1,500 from FOZZY singer and wrestling superstar Chris Jericho.

EXODUS released its new album, “Persona Non Grata”, on November 19 via Nuclear Blast Records. The LP was recorded at a studio in Lake Almanor, California and was engineered by Steve Lagudi and EXODUS. It was produced by EXODUS and was mixed by Andy Sneap. For the third time in the band’s history, they returned to Swedish artist Pär Olofsson to create the album artwork.

“Persona Non Grata” is the follow-up to 2014’s “Blood In Blood Out”, which was the San Francisco Bay Area thrashers’ first release since the departure of EXODUS’s singer of nine years, Rob Dukes, and the return of Steve “Zetro” Souza, who previously fronted EXODUS from 1986 to 1993 and from 2002 to 2004.

In a new interview with Jorge Botas of Metal Global, legendary guitarist Steve Vai spoke about the experience of reading reviews of his own work and how it affects — or doesn’t affect — the way he approaches making music. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I’ve read a lot of reviews in the past. I’ve been doing press for 41 years, so I’ve read just about everything that could be written about. I don’t even read my interviews now.

“What I’ve noticed in my career is that a good critic, a good music writer is a person that really enjoys music and also — and I know some people like this — when they listen to music, they’re not criticizing it; they’re critiquing it in line with their understanding of the artist, their understanding of the artist’s career, their knowledge of when the artist has hit his sweet spots, when he’s made his misses and what his potential is and what his focus was — him or her; whenever I say ‘he,’ it’s always him or her — what the artist’s focus was and what their potential was,” he explained. “So a good critic will listen and keep all those things in mind and give a review based on — not their opinion. On their critique of that artist, it always helps if they like the artist. The critique of the artist’s product based on where they’re coming from and where they’re trying to go. And I’ve found great guidance in certain reviews by certain critics of my work, because they know what I do, they know when I hit the mark, they know when I’m falling short and they listen to a new piece of work and I’m interested in what they have to say because they’re right on usually; they can catch things that I kind of miss. Not that I think they may be correct or not, but a good critic can make an artist think, ‘Hmm, okay. That makes sense.’ And a bad critic just strings together adjectives to profess their own sense of false superiority by dismantling somebody else’s career. So I avoid that. And you can recognize that when you read a critic that is really not a happy person.”

A little over a year ago, Vai underwent shoulder surgery to repair an injury. That procedure was successful, enabling him to record his new album, “Inviolate”. However, in preparing for a U.S. tour in support of the LP, it became clear that a new injury emerged that requires another surgery prohibiting the tour to be staged as previously announced.

The first U.S. leg of Vai’s tour dates will now begin on September 28 in El Cajon, California and wrap the first week of December. The itinerary will now feature performances in 52 markets as opposed to the initial plan of staging 54 shows. All ticket and VIP purchases will be honored for the rescheduled date. Vai’s performance in Atlanta, Georgia will now take place at the Variety Playhouse instead of The Eastern and due to scheduling conflicts, the Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Billings, Montana shows will no longer be a part of the tour.

Last February, Vai revealed that he had undergone shoulder and trigger finger surgeries, explaining that his shoulder had been “screwed up.”

During an appearance on Tyler Larson’s “Guitar Villains” podcast, Vai said that he sustained the finger injury by holding a tough chord for too long.

“Inviolate” was released on January 28 digitally and on CD via Favored Nations / Mascot Label Group.

A professionally filmed video of MANOWAR performing the song “Hand Of Doom” on April 5, 2019 at Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle in Stuttgart, Germany can be seen below.

According to the band, the clip, which was shot during MANOWAR’s “The Final Battle” world 2019/2020 tour, “captures the passion and energy of the German Manowarriors and their fellow brothers and sisters who joined them from all over the world.”

Last November, MANOWAR announced that it had recorded a song titled “The Revenge Of Odysseus” for the band’s upcoming studio album. Bassist Joey DeMaio also traveled to Athens to record a narration with father-and-son team Kostas and Konstantinos Kazakos. Kostas, hailed in Greece for his participation in many movies and as an accomplished theater actor and writer, and his son Kostantinos, who is also a talented actor, narrated a touching dialogue between Odysseus and his son Telemachus. And to honor the historic source material, they did so in Ancient Greek, translated from English by Sakis Tolis of Greek metal band ROTTING CHRIST.

Asked in a recent interview with Metal Hammer Greece’s TV show “TV War” if the next MANOWAR release will be a full-length album or if it will be the previously planned follow-up to 2019’s “The Final Battle I” EP, Joey said: “That’s a very good question. You’re the first person to ask that. And right now, I truly don’t know what is coming next, because we had the inspiration to write this song, which I was thinking could be a very long normal song — like maybe 10 minutes — ‘The Revenge Of Odysseus’. And it just got out of hand — it just kept growing and growing. It started out with, ‘Maybe it’ll just be in English.’ Then it was, ‘Maybe it’ll be in Greek.’ And then it became not just Greek — ancient Greek. And then something like famous narrators. And then it became, ‘No, we’re gonna take one of the most famous, if not the most famous actor in Greece.’ And then his son is gonna play the part of Telemachus. And it just got bigger and bigger and bigger. And now, when they came into the studio here in Athens and recorded, it just turned out so amazing. And now I’m stuck with a big problem — there’s so much incredible stuff that these guys performed… So the reality, just hearing words has given me the challenge, now how can I match this great performance with music that’s gonna be worthy of these beautiful, beautiful performances? So, it’s a big fucking problem. So I’m looking forward to getting back into the studio and trying to serve this in the best way that I can.”

As metal fans will know, 2022 marks the 30th year since the release of “The Triumph Of Steel”. With this album, MANOWAR surprised its fans with the over-28-minute-long track “Achilles, Agony And Ecstasy In Eight Parts”, inspired by Homer’s ancient Greek poem “The Iliad”. In celebration of this memorable anniversary and as a “thank you” for the steadfast and passionate support of the Greek Manowarriors, MANOWAR has now taken on “The Odyssey”, Homer’s tale of the great hero Odysseus and his long and perilous quest to return to his wife and son.

“The Final Battle I” came out in March 2019. At the time of its release, it was announced that parts II and III of the trilogy would arrive at a later date, inspired by MANOWAR’s adventures on the remainder of “The Final Battle”.

Later this year, MANOWAR will embark on the “Crushing The Enemies Of Metal Anniversary Tour ’22”, which will be packed with fan favorites from the band’s career and will pay special tribute to six signature MANOWAR albums and their anniversaries: 40th anniversary of “Battle Hymns”, 35th anniversary of “Fighting The World”, 30th anniversary of “The Triumph Of Steel”, 20th anniversary of “Warriors Of The World”, 15th anniversary of “Gods Of War”, and 10th anniversary of “The Lord Of Steel”.

In 2019, MANOWAR recruited Anders Johansson as the band’s new drummer.

The Swedish musician made his live debut with MANOWAR in March 2019 in Brno, Czech Republic.

Johansson can be heard on “The Final Battle I”, which was initially made available in an exclusive pre-sale at the merchandise booth of the band’s “The Final Battle” world tour.

Former MANOWAR guitarist Karl Logan was arrested in August 2018 in Charlotte, North Carolina and charged with six counts of third-degree exploitation of a minor. He was jailed after pleading guilty to two child-pornography counts.

A few days after Karl’s arrest was made public, MANOWAR issued a statement saying that he would no longer perform with the group. He has since been replaced by E.V. Martel, who previously played in a MANOWAR tribute band.

Fan-filmed video of GHOST’s February 8 concert at Giant Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania can be seen below.

GHOST kicked off its co-headlining tour with VOLBEAT on January 25 at the Reno Events Center in Reno, Nevada. During its 16-song set, GHOST performed the recently released single “Hunter’s Moon”, a cover of METALLICA’s “Enter Sandman” and debuted another song from its upcoming “Impera” album, called “Kaisarion”.

GHOST’s 26-date co-headlining U.S. arena tour with VOLBEAT and special guests TWIN TEMPLE will conclude on March 3 in Anaheim, California.

GHOST will release its fifth album, “Impera”, on March 11 via Loma Vista/Concord. The official music video for the LP’s latest single, “Call Me Little Sunshine”, was lensed by iconic director Matt Mahurin and stars Ruby Modine.

According to a press release, “Impera” “finds GHOST transported literally hundreds of years forward from the 14th century Europe Black Plague era” of its previous album, 2018’s “Prequelle”. “The result is the most ambitious and lyrically incisive entry in the GHOST canon: Over the course of ‘Impera”s 12-song cycle, empires rise and fall, would-be messiahs ply their hype (financial and spiritual alike), prophecies are foretold as the skies fill with celestial bodies divine and man-made… All in all, the most current and topical GHOST subject matter to date is set against a hypnotic and darkly colorful melodic backdrop making ‘Impera’ a listen like no other — yet unmistakably, quintessentially GHOST.”

In March 2020, at final show of GHOST’s “Prequelle” tour in Mexico City, Mexico, the band officially introduced Papa Emeritus IV, the new character who will front the act for its next LP phase.

GHOST leader Tobias Forge performed as a “new” Papa Emeritus on each of the band’s first three LPs, with each version of Papa replacing the one that came before it. Papa Emeritus III was retired in favor of Cardinal Copia before the release of “Prequelle”.

Longtime VIXEN bassist Share Ross has announced that she is “taking a hiatus” from the band. Her replacement is Julia Lage, formerly of the Latin Grammy-nominated Brazilian rock group BARRA DE SAIA and wife of Richie Kotzen, who recently completed a run of West Coast dates with her husband’s SMITH/KOTZEN project.

Ross made the news of her departure public last night (Tuesday, February 8) during VIXEN’s pre-Monsters Of Rock cruise concert at Magic City Casino in Miami, Florida. After playing the first few songs of the set with her bandmates, Ross told the crowd that “life got a little complicated” and that “something has to give,” resulting to her decision to “step away from VIXEN for a while.” She then introduced her “amazing” replacement and urged the VIXEN fans to “graciously” open their arms and welcome Lage to the group. At that point, Julia and her new bandmates launched into the track “Streets In Paradise” and played the last couple of songs of the set with Ross watching the proceedings from the side of the stage.

The only remaining member of VIXEN’s “classic” lineup is drummer Roxy Petrucci, who is also joined in the group by guitarist Britt Lightning (a.k.a. Brittany Denaro) and singer Lorraine Lewis.

In January 2019, VIXEN recruited Lewis as its new lead singer following the departure of Janet Gardner.

Lewis had already performed with VIXEN in March 2018 in Durant, Oklahoma while Gardner was recovering from surgery.

Prior to Lewis’s addition to VIXEN, Petrucci, Ross and Denaro vowed to “expand upon the VIXEN legacy while remaining true to our musical roots.”

Gardner, Petrucci and Ross are considered to be part of VIXEN’s classic lineup, along with founding guitarist Jan Kuehnemund, who died of cancer in October 2013.

Gardner contributed lead vocals to VIXEN’s most commercially successful studio albums — “Vixen” (1988), “Rev It Up” (1990) and “Tangerine” (1998) — as well as the group’s latest release, 2018’s live album “Live Fire”.

It was announced at the start of the pre-party that Vixen had a big surprise during their show.
I’ve been to thousands…

Posted by Gary Allen on Tuesday, February 8, 2022

Vixen with NEW bassist.. Julia Lage-Oficial

Posted by Will To Rock on Tuesday, February 8, 2022

Vixen with their new bass player, Julia Lage! ?

Posted by Melissa Corcino Petersen on Tuesday, February 8, 2022

Good night ladies! @OfficialVixen at @MonstersCruise pre cruise party! #monstersofrockcruise pic.twitter.com/aP7BgwQ9Nl
— monstersofrockcruise (@MonstersCruise) February 9, 2022

While promoting his critically acclaimed Las Vegas Strip residency “Sammy Hagar & Friends”, Sammy Hagar spoke to Fox5 KVVU-TV about the inspiration for his classic song “I Can’t Drive 55”. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Listen, it’s stood the test of time. It’s been around long enough where it came back around to have a whole new meaning — like all great songs do. [Laughs]

“Originally it was a protest song about that I didn’t wanna go — when they lowered the speed limit — and now it’s a protest song that I can’t get where I’m going; I’m always late,” he explained.

“I Can’t Drive 55” was the lead single and first track from Hagar’s eighth studio album, “VOA”, which came out in 1984.

Sammy wrote the song in response to receiving a speeding ticket in New York State for driving 62 miles per hour on a road with a 55 miles-per-hour speed limit, which was the highest permissible speed limit in the United States at the time due to the National Maximum Speed Law enacted in 1974.

In a 1994 interview on the show “In The Studio”, Hagar said about how he wrote “I Can’t Drive 55”: “I was in a rent-a-car that wouldn’t go much faster than 55 miles an hour. I was on my way back from Africa. I did a safari for three months throughout Africa. A really great vacation after [1982’s] ‘Three Lock Box’. I was traveling for 24 hours, I got to New York City, changed planes, Albany, New York. Got in a rent-a-car. Had a place in Lake Placid at the time, a little log cabin. I used to go there and write with my little boy. Aaron, at that time, went to North Country school when I was on tour. I would go there and see him. It was a really cool getaway. But it took two and a half hours to drive there from Albany. And I was driving from Albany, New York at 2:00 in the morning, burnt from all the travel. Cop stopped me for doing 62 on a four-lane road when there was no one else in sight. Then the guy gave me a ticket. I was doing 62. And he said, ‘We give tickets around here for over 60.’ And I said, ‘I can’t drive 55.’ I grabbed a paper and a pen, and I swear the guy was writing the ticket and I was writing the lyrics. I got to Lake Placid, I had a guitar set-up there. And I wrote that song there on the spot.”

The “I Can’t Drive 55” music video was directed by Gil Bettman and was shot on location at the Saugus Speedway in Santa Clarita, California.